Taylor L. Hebert : Champion of the outer reaches
Taylor Hebert screamed as she pounded against her locker door, the smell from the rotting sanitary pads clawed at her nose, her fingers becoming raw and bloody as they scraped at the unyielding metal door, her vision slowly going dark, her arms going week as her vision slowly went dark, her hear pounding out of her chest.
The last thing she heard right before she passed out was the piercing laughter of Sophia, Emma, and Madison.
An eternity passed in a matter of moments.
Taylor opened her eyes in a massive expanse of dark emptiness. Floating in front of her were three gargantuan figures.
The first was a gargantuan, tentacle riddled cross between a goat and ball of dark slime, it tentacles twisting and blindly exploring through the void, here and there a fanged, slime dripping mouth would somehow writhe into existence on one of the dark skinned tentacles, gnashing and grinning, its cloven legs scraping at the infante nothing beats it.
The second figure was the a sloth like toad, or was it a toad like sloth? Its ponderous form convert with a rotten yellow-green imitation fur. Its sleepy lids were half lowered over piss yellow eyes. A long, slug like lounge twined from its bulbous mouth, its bulk was supported by thousands of webbed, vestigial feet.
The third figure was a massive anthropoid of vaguely human portions, but who's octopoid face was a mass of sinuous, rubbery tentacles, its body, a rotting, scaly, greenish black color, with prodigious claws on its hands and feet. It had a pair of prodigiously wide bat wings. But the most unsettling part of the creature was its eyes, for it had the universes contained within a pair of globular sphere of the deepest black, spotted with white stars.
Taylor looked at these creatures and screamed as her mind shattered over and over, as time passed, her sanity was slowly regained, bit by bit, until once again, she was rational again.
Or perhaps she merely made her way through the rough seas of insanity and made her way to calm waters on the other side.
The three beings waited patiently in the timeless void as the teenage girl gathered herself together and finally faced the three sanity blasting visages in front of her.
The first creature spoke, its voice warm and caring, and vaguely feminine, its tone conveying almost motherly caring, its tentacles somehow giving the impression of turning around to face Taylor
"Hello little one, I am Shub-Niggurath, the mother of a thousand young."
The next creature spoke, its voice a constant yawning growl of sloth, exhaustion, and slow, inevitable corruption.
"I am Tsathoggua, the sleeper of N'kai."
The final creature spoke, well, it didn't actually speak. It screeched and growled a series of monosyllables that Taylor somehow heard in the back of her mind as English.
"I am Cthulhu, the Sleeper of R'lyeh."
The first creature, Shub-Niggurath, spoke again, its thousand mouths twisting, dribbling an acidic slime, its voice still warm and caring.
"We have taken the opportunity to bring you here, and make you an offer."
The sloth-toad Tsasthoggua spoke next, its ponderous maw opening in a yawn.
"An offer of power so that you might achieve your dream."
The octopoid figure of Cthulhu spoke, his tentacles writhing around a circular maw of razor sharp triangles of teeth.
"An offer of revenge, so you might be fulfilled."
Then the tree spoke as one, their voices blending into a buzzing, unholy chorus.
"We wish you to be a champion to one of us, to take our names out into the world, and make them known again."
Taylor looked at the three beings in confusion.
"You… You want me, to champion you?"
Shub-Niggurath spoke again, its warm voice caressing Taylor like a gentle embrace.
"We want you to chose one of us to champion. Whoever among us you choose will grant you powers in your role as their avatar."
Taylor just looked at the gargantuan mound of dark fleshy tentacles and and fanged mouthes.
She stared for a few brief moments in utter befuddlement before she finally shook herself out of her confusion, her eyes taking on a slightly calculating glint.
"And what happens if I say no?"
"Then we send you right back to the locker, and you will be left there, in the filth, for hours."
Taylor paused as she realized what she would be consigning herself to if she refused the offer. Then something occurred to her.
"What powers would I get from you If I decided to pick you?"
Shub-Niggurath seemed to ponder the question for a moment.
"You would become what you call a brute, no matter who you chose to one degree or another, for me, I estimate a Brute 6 or 7. You would also have a breaker form where your strength would be bumped up, and you would look a lot like me. In your regular human form you would also be able to extrude and control tentacles much like me"
Tsasthoggua sighed in irritation before he spoke, his voice like a smothering blanket.
"If you chose me you would become a master of flesh in all its forms. You could turn your own body into a veritable fortress of flesh and bone, able to shrug of mortal wounds with ease, your will be able to reduce your tormentors to mewling, squirming piles of flesh, leaving them with just enough of their minds to realize the folly of opposing you. "
Cthulhu finally spoke, his serrated maw twisting and contouring as the tentacles around its mouth writhed, its words scratching at the back of Taylor's mind.
"I grant you nothing as concrete as the other two will." The great green anthropoid octopus drifted closer, the universes in its eyes drilling into Taylor as it continued its pseudo speak.
"I can feel the suffering that you have endured child, the loss, the grief, the loneliness, the betrayal, the solitude, the utter despair of hopelessness."
Taylor swallowed as the gargantuan being leaned down to come eye to eye with her.
"I can give you piece of mind, I can give you acceptance, and in the same breath, I can give you the ability to twist the minds of humanity at your whim. You will be able to drive the weak willed mad with nought but a look, you be able to torment the strong through their very dreams. Not only that, but in time you would be able to take on my form, to both spread my name and to finalize your revenge."
She stared as Cthulhu drifted back in line with the other two creatures who seemed rather disgruntled by the beings actions.
Shub-Niggurath, shifted, her tentacles writhing agitatedly before turning back in Taylors direction and speaking.
"So, Taylor Hebert, who shall you champion?"
Taylor hung, motionless in the empty void as she considered her options, debating the pros and cons of each offer, and even wondering if she should just stay in the locker. But in the end she made her choice.
"I wish to champion-"
End of chapter 1